Electrical device manufacturers take cautious steps to ensure safety, quality, and the reputation of their products by employing a variety of rigorous functional tests, such as temperature test, water-proof test, conductivity test, insulation test, and hi-pot test. Each test represents assurance for an important product characteristic and is an indispensable step in the whole quality control procedure before the electrical device is delivered and distributed to all franchised stores for sale. Among all the test items mentioned above, the hi-pot test for testing voltage tolerance merits an extra attention over the others due to safety concerns, since functions of the electrical device are operated by inputting voltage to drive operation of the electrical device. Therefore, the test result obtained by following accurate and thorough test procedure becomes a critical factor for determining whether the electrical device has an ability to withstand a voltage overload. If the electrical device is not subject to a complete hi-pot test procedure, it creates safety doubt for the user. Hence, the electrical device manufacturers are responsible for performing strict safety checks of their products before shipment, so as to guarantee product safety for the users, and to further maintain good manufacturer credibility for the consumers.
Currently, manufacturers for the electrical devices execute the hi-pot test procedure on electrical or electronic devices in their production lines by having the operators manually operate the test instrument. The operators then sort out those passed or failed devices based on their test results, and scan the bar code of each device to record the test results in a Factory Information System (FIS) for quality control reference.
In practice, the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of performing the test procedure manually largely depend on the consistency and steadiness of the operators. Hi-pot testing is a highly repetitive and mind-numbing task that easily fatigues the operators and creates uncertainties, which would result in defects and inaccuracies in the entire test process. In many respects, the manual way of conducting the test can no longer satisfy the precise and accurate requirements needed to ensure quality of the current electrical products which are usually assembled by complex interconnection of a variety of electrical modules into compact electrical devices of high reliability.